Today FMod had a pair of announcements. If you’ve never heard of it, FMod is probably the preeminent make of audio middleware for game development. The first announcement was the release of FMod Studio 1.08, an audio creation tool compatible with many major game engines. The new version adds PlayStation VR support, new asset management workflow, Dolby Atmos support and more. As part of the same announcement, they also announced Fmod.io, a cloud based repository of audio sound effects. Probably the most impressive part is, the audio files all have the same price… 99 cents. Essentially FMod is aiming to become the TurboSquid of the audio world providing a one stop shop for sound effects. They have also announced that music is going to be added to the service in the near future. There is a promotion right now where your 50 first sounds are free to download.
A couple obvious questions that remain are:
- how many sound effects are there?
- what’s the license?
Well, as to how many, they claim a library of over 500,000 sounds, which is a pretty solid amount! Granted, this is all pretty meaningless if the license sucks… so, what can you do with the sounds you buy? Well according to the Fmod.io page:
What can I do with sounds I buy on FMOD.io?
The sounds you buy are yours to reuse as many times as you like and in any kind of project (not just games). You just can’t give away or resell the individual sounds.
So basically you can use them again and again across different project, commercial or otherwise. You just cant give them away or resell them. I do assume you can give away a product made using the sounds, just not the sounds themselves. All told, it’s a pretty liberal license. So, are you stuck using the sound fx in FMod only?
Can I use sounds in my library with other tools or game engines?
Yes. The sounds are yours to use anyway you like.
Nope.
I have to say this is actually a pretty impressive development, especially for indie developers who often don’t have access to quality sound engineers. You can learn more (but not much more) on the fmod.io website.
EDIT – Added a video of FMod.io in action available here and embedded below.